Hello all, long time no see! Welcome to the last post of 2023 and on the very last day of the year! We really must give the blog writer a raise. So she ate a little too much cheese over Christmas, sure she missed a couple of deadlines and uh, wait, she’s combining two gigs into one blog? Wow. Okay. I mean, it’s the last one of the year so, yeah, why not be lazy with it? End the year with the same contempt she has shown for the rest of 2023. That’s great.
Anyway! December presented us with a return to the phenomenal Raising the Rafters in Wath. It was on the exact day that would have been Beth’s Nan’s 104th birthday! She died at the ripe old age of 103 in January so it was the first birthday without her. It seemed only fitting that the charity chosen was The Macular Society - or as Mary would put it ‘I’ve got this Maccy Maccy Whatever’ which we think is a great name for a degenerative disease, if any CEO’s are reading and fancy putting this through deed poll to get the name changed.
It was blowing a ferocious gale and most of the songs sounded like they were being accompanied by a livid bassoon player and the wind battered the church doors. Despite this we could not be more honoured by how many people showed up! Half the band nearly didn’t make it, so we sure were glad of such a beautifully receptive audience.
Our only lasting displeasure is that we didn’t get a picture of the truly terrifying naffle prize. A mug with a face to rival Hugo’s (the church gargoyle). Oh wait, yes we did! Just for your viewing pleasure:
Everyone was in fantastic spirits despite the miserable weather and we have to say a huge thank you for everyone’s deep pockets and a lovely £165 raised for The Maccy Maccy Whatever Society.
Next up was the amazing Hootenanny! Hilarious that we know absolutely zero Christmas songs so we went in with the usual ballads of murder. But, the upbeat ones.
Firstly, we would like to say what a feat of engineering this night was! A full house with two stages. One band stopped on one stage, the next band started on the other. A night of wall to wall music. All organised by the wonderful Jig for a Kiss, ably helped by Chris Rust from Break a Leg on one of stages for the sound. The wonderful Phil Doleman played beautifully with some really uplifting numbers, and, sadly for the last time ever, Ar Foued. Tears may have been shed, cake may have been bought and eaten, what a fabulous night all round.
We want to write so much more about it, but it’s hard to. It was such a fun night full of incredible talent. Everyone was in good spirits, the place was sold out, people were dancing in the aisles and singing along - it honestly could not have been a better night among better company.
Moving in to 2024 we have some big news, the album release. We are hoping for the spring, but these things take time and we are currently enjoying the process of listening back to some of the mixes before they get mastered and drawing some artwork. It has been a pleasure working alongside Martyn Stonehouse at Infirmary Records and could not recommend anyone higher. He is seriously good.
We do have a couple of gigs already, back in our usual place at Cleckheaton Folk Festival in the summer and an amazing gig set for March at Spital Arts with the absolutely unmissable Ichabod Wolf.
Here’s to a peaceful 2024 full of music.
Love, harmonies, cwtch,
Kootch x